


In the Small Hours

by scholarlydragon



Category: Lore Olympus (Webcomic)
Genre: Character Study, F/M, Fluff, New Relationship, Self-Doubt, Talking, Tenderotica, first-person, reassurance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-21
Updated: 2019-12-21
Packaged: 2021-02-25 20:41:11
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21881683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scholarlydragon/pseuds/scholarlydragon
Summary: Written to commemorate the one year fic-aversary of my writing for the LO fandom. Sequel of sorts to my first ever LO fic "Sleepless".Hades is sleepless yet again, though under different circumstances.
Relationships: Hades/Persephone (Lore Olympus)
Comments: 12
Kudos: 160





	In the Small Hours

**Author's Note:**

> Much thanks to Alulah, Jessy, and Diana for beta reading support! 
> 
> Suggested Listening:  
> “Traumerei” Persona 4 OST Shoji Meguro https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-sr-dZE9qE  
> “Lady of Spring” Piano Stories Joe Hisaishi https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZN0qlW1nzSA  
> “First Love” Joe Hisaishi https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyfYuWNBEbY

The blankets shift slowly with her breathing and I can't help a quiet sigh.

It's been a few hours since we both fell asleep, entangled, but I've never been able to stay asleep for very long at a stretch, even when exhausted. I suppose it's just as well. I think I need a moment to myself to absorb all that's happened. I’d grown so accustomed to dancing around how I feel about her that it is more than a little bewildering to think I no longer have to. All in a whirl of an evening, truths we had hidden from ourselves and each other came out and I finally held her as I’d wanted to for a year.

It was probably foolish to think that my insomnia would suddenly disappear, anyway. Even the sudden granting of my most fervent wish can’t combat a millennium-long habit of sleepless nights. It’s no matter. Even though I remain adept at insomnia, she has still improved my existence exponentially.

I hold my breath as Persephone turns over, cradling her arms underneath her pillow. For a moment, I am certain she will wake, but she settles back into her pillow with a soft sigh. Her hair drapes across her cheek in tousled waves and I am filled with the temptation to brush it back for the sheer indulgence of touching her, but I resist. There’s no point in both of us being awake and, with her still asleep, I won’t be distracted by the look of affection in her eyes that makes me want to simply pull her into my arms once more.

Although that is difficult enough as it is. Just being next to her causes a wash of warmth through my chest.

I still can't shake the feeling that I'm terrible for her. Perhaps this is all selfish. The Fates know that I've been that before… But as much as I can't help worrying, I also can't shake the fierce hope that my broken heart can heal. With her, from the first moment I saw her face and my heart learned a new beat, I’ve been aching to embrace what she represented. It’s been almost a year exactly since I first saw her at the Panathenea and my tiny pink goddess has wound her way through every part of my heart. I’ve wanted to be the kind of man she deserves, even when I couldn’t recognize that in myself, even when I didn’t believe I could.

She makes me want to be better than I am, to strive for more than I’d thought I could since I had solidified my empire,except this time reaching inward instead of outward. I can only hope that I won’t be a disappointment.

A bubble of disbelief wells up inside me- Can we truly be here at last? Do I dream?- and I can no longer ignore the temptation. My hand creeps up to brush back the soft strands from Persephone’s face, seeking the reassurance of contact. I keep the touch soft, as fleeting as the butterflies that trail after her, hoping I won’t wake her. 

My hope proves in vain, though. Her beautiful eyes flutter open and my breath catches at the sight of her fuschia gaze. Even sleepy, even in the middle of the night, she is lovely.

“Hades?” Persephone whispers, her soft voice graveled with sleep. “Everything all right?”

Yes. And no. How can I put into words all that is within me? How can I describe to her what this moment feels like, what this entire night has felt like? But I have to at least try. I have spent entirely too much time lying to her and to myself.

“Everything is perfect," I whisper, "but I admit, I'm a little frightened."

The smooth, pink skin of her brow furrows slightly. "Frightened? Why?"

"I don't deserve you." The words hurt to speak them. Even an indirect rejection of what lies between us cuts like a knife. But I'd promised truth. My voice is soft, halting, "You are sunshine and warmth and life itself. I am… none of those things. How can I cage you in a sunless realm?"

My heart pounds with the words spoken aloud. I've never felt as though I merited her attention, even though I want to try to deserve it, but _this_ is the crux of it. She loves the mortals. They come to me as pale shadows. She is all things growing. Nothing grows in my realm. She thrives on the sunlight. I am darkness.

Even the most heroic effort of self-improvement cannot alter these truths.

The sudden, gentle pressure of her hand on my bare chest feels as though it could brand me. For all of her habits of affectionate contact, we restrained ourselves to simple hand holding, even as we yearned for more. Now that we are free to touch, it almost feels as though such simple contact could end me.

I yield to the pressure, flat on my back on the bed, and Persephone sits up, swinging one leg over to straddle me. I let out a strangled moan. I’d thought the touch of her hand a burn? Fates. She is as bare as I, neither of us having bothered to put on clothes for sleeping, and the wet caress of her sex against my lower belly draws forth a shiver. When she speaks, her voice is low, sultry yet soothing. “Do you trust me, Hades?”

With everything I am.

That alone should alarm me. I’ve been alone and insular for more ages than I care to count, even friends kept at arm’s length. Not even Hecate knows all of me. But with her… With Persephone I feel safe, my walls broken down. I want her to know everything I am, even the parts that no one else knows. I only must find the strength to show her.

I look up into the sweet, magenta gaze, waiting for an answer, and whisper, “Utterly.”

She smiles. "Then trust me when I say this: I am not caged." She braces her hands on my chest, fingertips spanning pale scars, and begins to roll her hips in smooth undulations.

I inhale sharply. The fluid motion elicits twin sensations of her core rubbing against my belly and the curve of her rump rubbing over my cock. Despite my anxieties, I begin to harden. She goes on, almost serene, her eyes locked on mine.

"You claim you don't deserve me. This is nonsense, of course, but let's examine it from the other side." She presses back firmly against me and I bite back a whimper, hands kneading her thighs. "It could be argued that a nineteen year old goddess, barely coming into her powers, doesn't deserve a king among gods. It could be said that this novice goddess doesn't deserve the attention of the firstborn of the Six Traitors."

"I…" It's becoming difficult to think through the arousal pulsing through me, but I muster all the focus I can. "I think you deserve the best of everything. You are more than just your power."

"As are you, Hades," she whispers, shifting backwards until her core rests against my shaft. "I am not caged. I _choose_ you. I choose _us_." Persephone lifts up on her knees and positions me, then sheathes me inside her body in one smooth motion.

The hot, slick warmth surrounds me and I cry out hoarsely, perfect softness welcoming and encompassing aching hardness. In the wash of bliss that sweeps through me, I think muzzily that there is some similarity to how she has always welcomed and soothed me, but the thought flits away again before I can grasp it.

Persephone comes to rest, her thighs flush against my hips, and stills. Her breath is short and her pupils huge. The blush of sex spreads down her chest. She is stunning.

"You are _you_. Not your powers. Not your mistakes," she whispers, bending down to brush a kiss over my lips. The motion shifts me inside her and we both gasp. She has lost some of her serenity, her voice now rasped with a need that I hunger to meet. "Besides, is life not the complement of death, O King? How could I be with someone who did not complete me?"

She begins to ride in the same gently rolling motions she'd used before and I arch against the bed, moaning. She feels incredible, as much for her acceptance of all of me as for the joining of our bodies. I already feel as though she completes me, but it had not occurred to me that I could complete her. It is a powerful thing to think that she could feel as strongly for me as I do for her.

I comb one hand into the hair at the back of Persephone’s head, my fingers tangling through silken strands as I roll my hips underneath her, matching rhythms.

“I complete you, dearest?” I ask softly, needing to simply hear it again as much as wanting to know more.

“You do,” she murmurs with a smile, panting softly. “I’ve never felt about anyone the way I feel about you. Even aside from this.” She nods down at our bodies as they move together. “I’ve never felt as comfortable with anyone, never as free to be myself.” Persephone cups my cheek in one small hand, her fingers stroking along my cheekbone. “You complete me, Hades.”

Emotion chokes me and I gather her close, rolling to press her back into the bed and pillows. Bracing myself above her, I resume our slow, thorough rhythm of thrusts. Persephone mewls quietly and raises her knees to embrace my flanks, her hands sliding against my chest. “Oh! Oh, Hades, you feel so good!” Her eyes are heavy-lidded with pleasure and pride surges in me at being able to make her feel like this.

“I’d been thinking,” I whisper, moving into and over her with long, luxuriant thrusts, “that I want you to know everything of me. You complete me as well. Sweetness, that’s part of what scares me. I’ve never felt like that for anyone. Not in all my life. But I want you to know all of me. Even… even the ugly parts.”

Persephone raises her hands to cradle my face, stroking back the silvery hair that has fallen into my eyes. “Nothing of you could be ugly to me, Hades. Everything you’ve done and experienced has made you into you. That could never be anything but beautiful to me.”

Another surge of emotion closes my throat and I claim her lips in a tender kiss. I have no words for this. It is beyond anything I’ve experienced and it _does_ scare me. But at the same time I know that I can handle anything with her beside me.

After half a dozen strokes, Persephone arches, crying out, and I can feel the flutters inside her. With a smile against her lips, I whisper, “Will you come for me, sweetness? Let me feel your pleasure?”

She nods, a little frantically. “Come with me, Hades. Fates, I’m so close.”

It doesn’t take much encouragement. Being with her is still too new for me to have too much control. Her soft, exhorting plea is all it takes to evaporate my tenuous grip on my arousal. My hips buck, erratic, as hot need sears up my spine and curls through my gut. As my climax slams through me, I can feel Persephone arch, her sheath clamping rhythmically around my length as she comes undone beneath me. As I wrap my arms around her, we shudder together, our bodies wracked with spasms of bliss.

After a small eternity of breathless moments, we fall into satiety, the aftermath of climax leaving us boneless against each other. I feel Persephone’s lips on my cheek as my face is buried against the side of her neck and I lift my head to return her kiss properly.

She caresses my face again, as though needing to maps the planes and angles to commit them to memory. As we break the kiss for air, Persephone smiles and strokes a feather soft caress against my lips. “I don’t care what anyone else says or does. Whether either of us ‘deserves’ each other, all that matters to me is you.” 

The same rush of warmth floods through me, this wash of happiness that I am rapidly discovering I cannot do without. I kiss her tenderly, trying to put into the caress everything for which I have no words. Persephone smiles into the kiss and returns it enthusiastically.

Two thousand years and I’d given up on finding anything like this. I’d never dreamed I’d find my completion in someone like her, but she’s right. We are two sides of the same coin, perfect complements. 

The Fates have a sense of humor, for certain. But, as Persephone rolls me onto my back once more, a light in her eyes that promises yet more bliss, I can’t be too upset at being the butt of their obscure joke. Not when everything I’ve ever wanted is within my arms.


End file.
